Aku no Hana’s capacity for controversy continues to increase – police are reporting the arrest of two schoolgirls for destroying their classroom in a copycat crime they say was modelled on a scene from the manga.

The pair, 13 and 14-year-old girls attending a middle school in Kanagawa prefecture, reportedly broke into their school and went on a moderately destructive rampage, smashing windows and letting off fire extinguishers, culminating in them flooding one of their classrooms.

Along with emulating the manga by writing “death” in chalk on a blackboard, they freely admitted their main motive was copying the manga (though why they were inclined to do this is still unclear).

Both girls have been referred to the juvenile offenders system for property damage.

Amongst Aku no Hana there has been sadness they could not have at least emulated one of the more interesting scenes:

I wish those girls gave a better reason than “we were copying the manga”. By even giving that message at all, they’re hurting their manga as well as manga in general. This just gives more ammo to the proponents of the idea that media influences youth to do the wrong things, like shoot up schools or jump out of buildings to try and fly.

I never ready that far into the manga only the 1st volume but I’d like to know as to what chapter is that scene with Saeki and did they really go that far? I doubt Nakamura would stay quiet…Help a fellow Aku no Hana fan out pls

I wish those girls gave a better reason than “we were copying the manga”. By even giving that message at all, they’re hurting their manga as well as manga in general. This just gives more ammo to the proponents of the idea that media influences youth to do the wrong things, like shoot up schools like they’re playing Doom or jump out of buildings to try and fly like Superman.

I wish those girls gave a better reason than “we were copying the manga”. By even giving that message at all, they’re hurting their manga as well as manga in general. This just gives more ammo to the proponents of the idea that media influences youth to do the wrong things, like shoot up schools or jump out of buildings to try and fly.

Why is Kasuga is bug-eyed about touching Saeki’s breasts?? By god, no wonder the Japanese population is getting old, the kids can hardly contain themselves touching a woman’s breast. 😛
womp womp (I’m messing).

The picture from the destroyed classroom doesn’t even resemble the picture from the manga.
This is more a case of ‘I’m pissed off / bored, let’s rampage some classrooms… that one manga did something like that. If someone asks for the motive, it’s the mangas fault.’
If they really wanted to remake the manga scene, it’s a pure job, where’s the paint and circles? Just breaking desks and knocking over chairs… boring!

It’s not poorly written (it’s got the right strokes, the right form, and is far from unreadable), but it’s also not written with dignity. I’m pretty sure that’s to be said for anyone trashing a classroom like this.

Delinquent students don’t become delinquents because they’re beaten by their parents, they become delinquents because their parents are trash in general. Most kids get beaten, the difference with growing up into a deliquent is whether the beating was out of rage or out of wanting to teach a lesson. All the delinquents I’ve known had parents or family members that had been to jail; I know of loads of people who were beaten as children but had otherwise loving parents and grew up to be perfectly fine people.

Here I was, thinking this would finally be a sensible comment, but then…

Most kids get beaten

This is not true at all in Central and Northern Europe, quite the contrary.

the difference with growing up into a deliquent is whether the beating was out of rage or out of wanting to teach a lesson

Lol, typical pro corporal punishment conservative rhetoric. In fact, while the former obviously can have a significantly more detrimental effect on the kid’s social development, the overall impact on whether they become a delinquent is actually minor. What does make a difference is if the kid ever actually truly understands the values that make you a good person.

Corporal punishment, no matter how much you ritualize it, cannot do this. If the kid regrets their action because they fear the punishment, you accomplish nothing; if they regret it because they genuinely understand and feel why what they did was wrong then the punishment is redundant and potentially damaging. This is really such a no-brainer it’s ridiculous. The fact that they gradually grow to understand rights and wrongs despite being physically chastised doesn’t mean they wouldn’t have learned even quicker with more adequate educational methods, and it certainly doesn’t protect them from the potential damage.

I find it amusing how both of you clearly display cognitive dissonance when defending the practice. Perfectly illustrated textbook psychology. I’d actually laugh if it wasn’t so sad.

@ALAKTORN
Good that you see the difference and I up voted that comment.
The one suggesting Mr Cane on the other hand was advocating abuse.
In most first world countries using a rattan cane on a kid would be considered a severe form of abuse.
In my country people like that are sometimes killed when they go to prison as even the criminal types look down on it.

There is a huge difference between a paddling and a beating.
Sometimes you may need to paddle a child but never under any circumstances should a child ever be beaten.
When you paddle a child it’s only on the butt and you make sure as not to really cause any injury.

I had a Mr. Cane once; he was an asshole, I’m pretty sure I did more of the “cane’ing” though, guy really didn’t live up to his name, he really could not handle kids. I, for one; think this is pretty awesome, what are the chances of someone learning something useful in a classroom?
3 out of 10 times probably, then again the Japanese school system is probably leagues better than my country’s, but that’s not saying much since my country has an awful piece of shit school system. Aka, Amurica. Not a Japanophile, just calling the shots how I see them, lol.

Did you even bother to read my comments? It’s a more effective incentive to be more sophisticated about your exploits, nothing more. It doesn’t teach you right from wrong, only power vs. powerlessness, weak vs. strong.

I mean when all other kind of more intellectual punishment are done, and proven to yield no effect to the stubborn kids

You just perfectly illustrated your lack of understanding of human psychology and how education and socialization play into it. And you didn’t address the major point I raised at all. All you get is a quick fix. They’ll comply at first, and then be more subtle about it.

That is if they’re already JC age like the girls in the article. If you can’t get through to them at this point, you’ve already fucked up big time WAY before and are out of your league. You’ll then need professional outside help if you still want to salvage your hellspawn. Physical punishment, ESPECIALLY ritualized one, starts to become extremely damaging at that age, under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you do that. Seek help if they’re that out of control. It’s your fault that they ended up like this anyway.

If you’re talking about small children, then PERSONALLY I think a semi-serious smack is a reasonable way to get a situation under control. But ONLY if you’re in public and a quick fix is actually what you need. Not because it’s the best option or even a good one. It’s a simple risk/benefit tradeoff. Something like a quick smack is not very likely to have any permanent psychological effect until they’re about 6~8, and it really might be the most efficient way to fulfill your duty to the public not to be a nuisance. You shouldn’t regard it as education though. It’s really just a quick fix. In fact never do it if you’re in private and disturbing other people isn’t a concern. If they’re seemingly totally unable to comply without force though then chances are that they have some kind of disorder and a visit to a psychologist might be in order.

Regarding implements, using them has a probability of psychological damage orders of magnitude above using your bare hands. Do not do it. It’s abuse. Even if you go to great pains not to hit too hard. It’s still psychological abuse. The hazard grows with the implement’s degree of specialization for punishment. The high amount of humiliation and degradation is what’s really dangerous about them.

Nope, it would just compel them to hide their tracks better. Imposing values through physical punishment does nothing. This has been proven over and over in countless studies. In fact today you’ll find NOT ONE reputable education researcher or psychologist in favor of corporal punishment. The only effect it potentially can have on children is that they develop the conviction that violence is a legitimate solution to get their way.

And no, that it “did you good in the long run” and “you didn’t become a total douchebag and/or criminal because of it” is BS. It only means that you turned out a decent person DESPITE it, not because of it. Though I have to question just how decent a person you really are if you actually consider hitting people with an implement that has a high potential to cause permanent scarring.

Just because they read manga does not make them otaku… To me this sounds much more likely to be committed by couple of attention whores, exact opposites of your average otaku who hide in their rooms and darker corners of the rooms with other people.